Beth Din

Mr Krausz is a retired Jewish judge, known as a dayan, who was involved with Manchester Beth Din, a body which oversees matters of Jewish family law and other issues within the Jewish community.

Manchester Beth Din said Mr Krausz was no longer associated with it but declined to comment further.

Mr. Rapaport said that it was only to be expected that a judge would look unfavorably on someone who reneged on an original agreement, even if that agreement was signed in a beth din.

Ms. Weisberger and her husband had originally gone to a Jewish court, known as a beth din, to receive a divorce in 2008.

Pronounced deference to beth din agreements, they say, tends to happen in jurisdictions where judges, some of whom are familiar with Jewish customs, are elected by large populations of ultra-Orthodox Jews, like Brooklyn or Rockland County, N.Y.